Legacy Document
Important: The information in this document is obsolete and should not be used for new development.
AppleScript Changes
This section discusses the changes to AppleScript in QuickTime 6.
In this section:
Recordability
Terminology Changes
Recordability
QuickTime Player is now a recordable application. To take advantage of this new capability, you must use QuickTime Player in conjunction with an application that supports AppleEvent recording, such as Script Editor.
Using Script Editor to record a script, you need to make sure that both QuickTime Player and Script Editor are running. Then you click the record button in a script window. Any operation you perform in QuickTime Player will be recorded in the open script document.
Most features of QuickTime Player are recordable with the following exceptions:
Import and Export are not recordable
Sprite-related property panels are not recordable
Music Track Instruments property panel is not recordable
Printing operations are not recordable
The result of a AppleEvent recording session is rarely a finished script, but rather more like a summary of the operations you would like performed. A recorded script will have no error checking code nor if/then/else or repeat/until structures. Quite often, a recorded script will merely demonstrate the correct syntax for an operation and little more.
Terminology Changes
QuickTime Player introduces a number of new commands, classes, and properties, and well as modifications to existing terminology elements, discussed in this section.
New Commands
The following new commands are introduced in QuickTime 6:
enter full screen
exit full screen
These two commands make it possible to enter and exit full screen mode independent of movie playback. This means that in QuickTime 6 you can create a script that will put the player in full screen mode and then perform other operations, including opening and playing movies while remaining in full screen mode. Once the script has finished presenting movies, it is necessary to call exit full screen to restore the computer to its normal state.
enter full screen: Enter full screen video mode
enter full screen reference -- display |
[bounds point] -- the desired target dimensions of the display |
(height, width) |
[background color rgb color] -- the background color |
exit full screen: Exit full screen video mode
exit full screen reference -- display |
The following script demonstrates how to use these two commands to enter full screen mode, present a sequence of movies, then exit full screen mode:
tell display 1 to enter full screen |
tell movie 1 to play |
tell movie 2 to play |
tell movie 3 to play |
tell display 1 to exit full screen |
The following commands perform matrix manipulation on tracks and movies. While it is possible to achieve the same results by setting the matrix property directly (see current matrix, below), these commands serve as useful shortcuts and correspond to familiar menu commands and property window operations.
flip horizontal: Flip an object along the horizontal axis |
flip horizontal reference -- the object to flip |
flip vertical: Flip an object along the vertical axis |
flip vertical reference -- the object to flip |
resize: Scale an object |
resize reference -- the object to scale |
[by small real] -- the percent of current size |
[around fixed point] -- the point to resize around |
rotate: Rotate an object by an arbitrary amount |
rotate reference -- the object to rotate |
by small real -- the amount of rotation (in degrees) |
[around fixed point] -- the point to rotate around |
rotate left: Rotate an object 90 left |
rotate left reference -- the object to rotate |
rotate right: Rotate an object 90 right |
rotate right reference -- the object to rotate |
skew: Skew an object by an arbitrary amount |
skew reference -- the object to skew |
by fixed point -- the amount of skew |
[around fixed point] -- the point to skew around |
translate: Translate the object some distance |
translate reference -- the object to translate |
by fixed point -- the distance to translate |
The replace command performs an operation equivalent to the Edit/Replace menu item.
replace: Replace the current selection with an object from the clipboard |
replace reference -- movie |
The invert command inverts an image. This is primarily useful for inverting a bitmap before using it set the new track mask property.
invert: Invert an object |
invert reference -- the object to invert |
The save export settings command is used to save the specified exporter settings to a file. This file can then be used with the export command.
save export settings: Save an exporters settings |
save export settings |
for AVI/BMP/DV stream/Fast Start QTVR Movie/FLC/hinted movie/image sequence/interframe |
compressed VR object movie/MPEG4/picture/QuickTime media link/QuickTime movie/AIFF/System 7 sound/ |
wave/MuLaw/standard MIDI/text file -- the desired file type |
[to alias] -- the destination file |
[replacing boolean] -- should the original file be deleted |
first? |
Enhanced Commands
Command export
The export command has additional export options: Fast Start QTVR Movie, interframe compressed VR object movie, MPEG 4, and QuickTime media link.
An optional parameter using settings preset has also been added that allows the use of an export settings file (see save export settings command, above).
export: Export a movie or track to a file |
export reference -- the movie or track to export |
to alias -- the destination file |
as AVI/BMP/DV stream/Fast Start QTVR Movie/FLC/hinted movie/image sequence/interframe |
compressed VR object movie/MPEG4/picture/QuickTime media link/QuickTime movie/AIFF/System 7 sound/ |
wave/MuLaw/standard MIDI/text file -- the desired file type |
[using default settings/most recent settings] -- the export settings to use |
[using settings preset string] -- the name of the export settings preset to use |
[using settings alias] -- the file containing the export settings |
[replacing boolean] -- should the original file be deleted first? |
Command make
The make command can be used to create movie, track, frame and favorite objects. The syntax for each is shown below:
make new movie with data {frame 6 of track "Video Track" of movie "QuickTime Sample Movie"} |
make new movie with data {track "Video Track" of movie "QuickTime Sample Movie"} |
make new track at first movie with data alias "myharddrive.myimage.jpeg" |
make new favorite with data "http://stream.qtv.apple.com/myevent.mov" |
make new favorite with file "myharddrive:mymovie.mov" |
New Properties
New Application Properties
The following Boolean properties can be set to show or hide the various non-movie windows:
show favorites window boolean -- show the favorites window |
show movie info window boolean -- show the movie info window |
show welcome movie automatically boolean [r/o] -- always show the hot picks movie when the application launches |
New Movie Properties
The following properties control audio playback characteristics:
bass gain small integer -- the bass setting for the track (-256..256) (not saved with the movie) |
sound balance small integer -- the balance of the movie (-128..128), where negative is left, 0 is center, and positive is right |
treble gain small integer -- the treble setting for the movie (-256..256) (not saved with movie) |
preferred audio balance track track [r/o] -- the preferred track to use for balance settings |
preferred audio gain track track [r/o] -- the preferred track to use for bass and treble gain settings |
The color table property allows a scripter to specify a color palette for movies that support palettes:
color table palette -- palette for the movie |
The current chapter track property permits easy access to the current chapter track of the movie:
current chapter track track [r/o] -- the currently active chapter track (may differ by language) |
The current matrix property describes the current transformation applied to the movie:
current matrix matrix -- the matrix of the movie |
The following boolean properties control user interface elements:
show detailed movie info window boolean -- show the movie property window |
show sound controls boolean -- show the sound controls in the LCD |
show video controls boolean -- show the video controls |
The following properties control the visual appearance of the movie and perform actions corresponding to the video controls:
video brightness adjustment small real [r/o] -- the adjustment to the video brightness (range is -1.0 to 1.0) |
video contrast adjustment small real [r/o] -- the adjustment to the video contrast (range is -1.0 to 1.0) |
video tint adjustment small real [r/o] -- the adjustment to the video tint (range is -0.25 to 0.25) |
video color adjustment small real [r/o] -- the adjustment to the video color |
New Track Properties
The alternate track property permits one track to be specified as the alternate of another. This is useful for making multi-language movies that automatically enable a track based on the current system language.
alternate track [r/o] -- the alternate for this track |
The following properties control audio playback characteristics of audio tracks:
bass gain small integer -- the bass setting for the track (-256..256) (not saved with movie) |
treble gain small integer -- the treble setting for the track (-256..256) (not saved with movie) |
The following properties control visual playback characteristics of visual tracks:
mask image -- the mask of the track |
current matrix matrix -- the matrix of the track |
transfer mode transfer mode unknown/dither copy/no dither copy/blend/transparent/straight alpha/premul |
white alpha/premul black alpha/straight alpha blend/composition -- the transfer mode of the track |
New Classes
Class matrix
The matrix class describes a 3 x 3 transformation matrix which can be applied to a movie or track. Commands such as rotate left and flip actually modify the current matrix property of the target object. The contents of a matrix can be set by a list of the following format: “{{1.0, 0.0, 0.0}, {0.0, 1.0, 0.0}, {0.0, 0.0, 1.0}}”. This particular matrix is know as the identity matrix and describes an object in its default state with no transformations applied. Constructing or manipulating a matrix directly requires knowledge of matrix math operations.
Properties
class type class [r/o] -- the class |
contents type class -- the contents of the matrix |
Class Palette
A palette object is a list of rgb colors (see below). Some movies permit specifying a palette which describes the set of colors to be used when displaying the movie.
Elements:
rgb color by numeric index |
Properties
class type class [r/o] -- the class |
contents type class -- the contents of the matrix |
Class rgb color
The class describes a color using three magnitudes: one each for the red, green, and blue color components.
Properties
class type class [r/o] -- the class |
contents type class -- the contents of the rgb color |
red small integer -- the mangnitude of the red component |
green small integer -- the mangnitude of the green component |
blue small integer -- the mangnitude of the blue component |
Last updated: 2002-07-01
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